On August 23rd, the US imposed tariffs of 25% on imports of a number of fabricated plastic products from China, including film/sheet from PE and PP, tubes/pipes from PE and PP and monofilament from PE. US imports from China of all these products except PE film/sheet were down in August versus July.

As of August 23, 2018 China imposed a 25% tariff on a number of products from the US, including HDPE, ethylene-alpha-olefins copolymers and EVA. The new tariffs did not reduce total US exports of ethylene polymers in August, which continued at record levels.